10 Blogging Tips For an Irresistible List Post

The articles divided into points, in other words the list posts, have a great success among readers in the blogosphere, because they are easy to read, they avoid unnecessary chatter and they are rich of information.

Writing a list post, means to organize content in a structure that is particularly suited to the web, but this does not mean that you can simply number some stuff and just publish it, in order to get retweets, comments or academics kisses.

Here you find 10 blogging tips that you should follow in order to write a great List Post.

1 . Publish Useful Resources

You should take a moment to emphasize in your article the fundamental concept, in other words what you are writing about.

Before think to write about a specific topic, just ask yourself : “Has someone already published a list of the resources listed in my article? Can I give to the readers something useful ?

Try to be innovative in your writing, and avoid what has been said already 1,000 times.

I know that in the blogging niche, this is something not easy at all, but if someone ask you the difference between your list and the one already published by other bloggers, the answer should be very clear.

And above all you should write something really useful. See what I mean :

6 . Work on Your Headline

It is difficult to have a second chance, if your headline is not good enough to catch your visitor’s attention, he will not continue reading your post.

A tip: use the numbers in your title, as they really help to understand the content of your article.

7 . Use a Good Format

The points of your list should be easily recognizable and widely spaced, while the header of the paragraphs should follow a consistent basis that brings all the titles in that section to have the same importance.

To be clear : the titles of the paragraphs should be <h2> with similar appearance, the same goes for subtitles <h3> and so on. These are simple but fundamental rules that you need to follow, also for SEO reasons.

If you want to know more, be sure to read these 20 SEO Tips for Beginner Bloggers.

8 . Watch the Number of Points

It may happen that you have 10 points in your headline, then in your content you miss one.

Be sure to proofread your article, and be sure to include in your list post all the points you had in your mind.

Reading again (and again if needed) your content, before publishing it, does not cost you anything.

9 . Choose Between Points and Paragraphs

When you create a list post, you have 2 solutions: the bulleted lists (ordered list in your WP Dashboard – use Alt + Shift + O) and paragraphs.

In the first case there is a real bullet list marked with small icons (or numbers) , in the second you create manually the paragraphs with titles and numbers.

So the question is which option you should use. Just thing about how many points you have to list and how much you can write about each one, and you will have your answer.

10 . Do Not Forget the Call to Action

Occasionally you may find articles that has huge list well written, but without any call to action.

In my opinion, you should include an invitation for your reader. It may simply be a question.

Perhaps there is no need to write anything more, but do not complain if users do not comment, for instance.

At the end of my articles there are always a call to action for invite the readers to comment and leave their own experience.

You can also ask your readers to subscribe to your RSS Feeds, if they liked what they have read.

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What about you, do you like the Posts Lists? Are you using them in your blog?

Comments

I think when you give something to someone (for istance good content to read, a video, a tutorial course), you can ask for something in return.
This is the Call to Action.
And it is certainly commensurate with the service you give.

Awesome list! I love list posts, I have used a few in the past and they seem to attract some good attention. I am working on one at the moment. Like you say though, its quite difficult to find ones that don’t already exist. I don’t think this really matters as long as you put your own twist on it……..

I think that if you blog about the most competitive topics, like “make money online”, “blogging”, “online marketing”, etc, it is really hard to find something of which has not been discussed yet.
I do suggest you to say YOUR OPINION” about those topics or a special subject.

I think with experience you will be able to improve, then surely this also applies to blogging, and writing successful headlines.
Moreover, the headline is the part that first jumps to the attention of the reader and if is not attractive enough, he will not continue to visit and read your article!

Excellent post Erik, I have only done a couple of list posts, I don’t want to become lazy and just fill my site with them but they are great when used right, as you say people can get lazy and and list everything that they can. A huge list can put people off.

Writing lists also mean having a long post, and no one especially loves reading long posts. It is only in the format and how you present your list article that people will find it appealing. You may even pt instructions to find what they are looking for using the CTRL+F function and list down the keywords they could look for.

Thanks Erik for this informative post. Great tips you have provided above and all would be very helpful in blogging. I like the sixth and the seventh format of working on headline and using a good format. I think these two are important. An appropriate headline is the first most important thing that the visitors gets attracted to.

Erik this is the second post of yours I have read today. you could charge bucks for this kind of information! the whole list thing will make everything seem so clear to my readers and I think they will keep coming back! Thank you so much Erik!! 🙂

Blog post publishing format is one of the most important factor that is responsible for your daily site traffic. Infact well formatted blog posts always have less bounce rate rather than the messy one. Similarly use of relevant images in blog post attract more users rather than without a blog post without any image.